


letters to home

by silentbutdeadly



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam as DADA Professor, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Coming of Age, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Epistolary, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2018-09-19
Packaged: 2019-07-08 10:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15928991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silentbutdeadly/pseuds/silentbutdeadly
Summary: A series of letters Lance sends to his mother — about his classes, his friends, Quidditch, and a particularly annoying mullet.Written for Klance Month 2018





	1. First Year

**Author's Note:**

> don't quite know how this happened, but i guess i'm writing seven years's worth of letters for lance mcclain. or at least a good number of the letters he's sent home over his stay at hogwarts.

September 1, 2010

Dear Mama,

I’m in Ravenclaw!!!! Now you’ve got a kid in every house, since Marco was in Gryffindor, Luis was in Hufflepuff, and Vero’s in Slytherin. I met two nice kids on the Hogwarts Express. Their names are Hunk and Pidge, and we all split a bunch of Every Flavoured Beans on the way there. Hunk got sorted into Hufflepuff, which makes sense because he seems like he’s really nice and he made sure that we all split the beans equally even though I ended up getting more gross flavours anyways.

The Hat took a really long time to decide between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor for me, though. Both of them made sense, but Ravenclaw felt good in my gut, which is funny because it’s the smart house and you’d think I’d have used my head to decide. Either way, I think I’m happy with the house that I picked, even though I’m still wondering why I had to choose in the first place. Pidge got picked to be in Ravenclaw with me, but I knew they were a genius as soon as I met them. Me? Not so much.

There was another kid in our compartment on the train, but all he did was stare out the window. I tried to make friends with him and offered him some of the jellybeans, but he just looked at me and went back to his window. Which was rude! He had weird hair, like Luis did when he started Hogwarts and it was all long in the back, except this guy has bangs that cover his eyes. His name’s Keith or something, I wasn’t paying a lot of attention when he got Sorted. He’s in Gryffindor though, which doesn’t make sense — he was too chicken to eat some jellybeans.

Sorry this letter’s so short. I’m dead tired, my classes start early tomorrow, and after all that travelling, I definitely need my beauty sleep. First thing tomorrow is Defence Against the Dark Arts with someone called Professor Waite. I’m so excited, I can’t wait!

Love you always,

Lance

 

 

September 2, 2010

Dear Mama,

Keith is literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me, and that includes the time Papa cut my hair because he thought knowing how to shave meant knowing how to use a razor. At least back then we could use a Hair Fixing Charm before I had to go outside and face everyone. Did Keith let me have this? Nooooo.

I can’t remember if I already told you, but Gryffindors and Ravenclaws have Defence Against the Dark Arts together on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I love the professor, but I have to see the face of the most irritating boy in all of Hogwarts, three times a week, every week, for the rest of the whole year. I don’t know how I’ll survive; his hair is so fluffy and ridiculous that I have a hard time seeing the board. Pidge says I should sit on the textbook since I don’t even read it, which makes no sense because they’re shorter than I am. And I definitely study. For sure.

But anyway, today Professor Waite was teaching us about defensive spells, and started us off with the Disarming Charm. (He’s such a cool guy. He looks like a nerd with his glasses but he’s so sandy-haired and handsome, it just works. Plus, he’s really tall — I can’t be too close when I talk to him or else my neck hurts from having to look up. He’s really nice about it, though, because he knows I’m short and he doesn’t make a big deal out of it. He just goes, “Apologies, McClain, do you mind if I sit down for a bit?” so I can’t _not_ appreciate him.) Which is cool, because hey, it’s Harry Potter’s signature spell. So Professor Waite and Disarming Charms should make for an interesting class, right? Except for some reason Professor Waite was possessed by some kind of poltergeist, and not only paired up all the students so we could practice one each other, but also matched _me_ with Keith.

I kept in mind what you told me in your last letter: that he could be shy, that Hogwarts is new for everyone in my year, and that everyone handles situations differently, so I shouldn’t take his attitude so personally. So I went up to his table, held out my hand and said, “Hi, my name’s Lance, you’re Keith, right?” and his face went all frowny and scrunched up. Which is exactly what you want to happen when you’re talking to someone for the first time. Or second. I’m not counting the Jellybean Incident.

It’d be fine if he said something like, “Your face is familiar, but I can’t quite remember where I’ve seen you,” or “Oh yes, I’ve finally placed you, you’re that handsome boy from the train!”. But no, he says, “How do you know my name?” and he looked at me like I was a stalker. Obviously this guy wasn’t paying attention during the Sorting, but he didn’t even wait for an answer before he got off his chair and went to the dummies that we were supposed to be practicing on. They had cool little targets on their hands that would fling back when we hit them while our partner was spotting us. I tried talking to him about classes (to see if we had any together), but he just ignored me and I gave up.

Ideally, the class would’ve ended with Professor Waite checking on everyone and then dismissing us all for break, but the poltergeist must have really enjoyed possessing him. It’s the only reason I can use to explain why he thought it was a good idea to have me and Keith “pretend” to duel. Keith was scowling so hard you could put a coin between his eyebrows, take a picture, and put it under the dictionary definition of “penny-pinching”. The professor brought us a few meters away from each other, and then positioned us into duelling stances, all while explaining what he was doing to the class. Apparently duelling theory is supposed to be taught during second year, but I guess he’s unconventional. Either way, it didn’t stop Keith from chucking my wand into the other side of the room with his Disarming Charm.

He made me feel so stupid. I couldn’t even see it fly out of my hand. I just heard it thwap the wall and drop to the floor. His face didn’t change at all from that annoying scowl, while I was combusting with embarrassment. Nothing from him, nothing at all, and that’s what makes me so heated.

Sorry for ranting. I know there’s more to Hogwarts than Keith and I shouldn’t be letting him get under my skin, but I just can’t help it for some reason. I’ll try to do better.

In other news, my other classes are going pretty well. I’m not the teacher’s pet in any of them, but they don’t hate me either. A lot of them are really interesting; it’s not just Professor Waite, even though he _is_ my favourite so far (except for today, but hopefully that’s an exception). I miss you all, obviously, you the most, but I think that I really can belong here at Hogwarts. I’m gonna make sure of it.

Tell Abuelito and Abuelita that I love them and miss them, and obviously you and Papa, too.

Much love,

Lance


	2. Second Year

September 22, 2011

Dear Mama,

How’s everything going over at home? Has Luis found a job yet? He’s freaking Vero out — she’s smart enough to be a professor, but she’s deathly worried about not getting a job right out of school…as if she didn’t get straight O’s on her OWLs. She says employers care about NEWTs more, which is why she’s working so hard, but it’s not that difficult to figure that out. Of course something called _Nastily Exhausting_ Wizarding Tests are going to be worse than _Ordinary_ Wizarding Levels. It’s in the _name._

By the way, Vero told me to tell you that she’s really sorry she hasn’t been able to write to you as much as she used to. That’s how bad NEWTs are stressing her out, even though they’re seven months away. At least her girlfriend is helping her chill out. Vero can be _so_ mean when she’s under pressure. She should’ve gotten together with Elisa ages ago, like maybe before I was 8 and she replaced all my underwear with diapers after she caught me sleeping with my thumb in my mouth (which is never happening ever again). They’re really happy together though, which is good, because a happy Elisa means a happy Vero who doesn’t pick on me when I hang out with her. But I guess it really is different to have that special someone who chooses to love you for everything that you are, and for you to love them back. Vero loves Elisa so much, it’s like a never-ending earthquake no matter how far away you are. It’s probably like a crazy feedback loop of all the stuff that makes love, _love._ I wouldn’t know. I’m twelve.

Course, I’m not knocking on _your_ love at all, Ma. Who else loves me enough to know that I’m always a little sick when the weather gets colder, and sends me a massive tub of Vicks via express owl? It’s so much more comfortable than a Pepper-Up Potion. Hunk got a cold last week and steam came out of his ears for hours. He sits a row ahead of me in Charms; the vapour kept blowing back into my face and it didn’t even clear my sinuses. Meanwhile, I slather Vicks on twice a day, my nose stops whistling and the tickle in my throat goes away as soon as I cough a bit in my sleeve. Sure, people keep sniffing whenever I pass them in the hallways, but at least they don’t know it’s me. Plus, it smells like home.

Speaking of home, the new Beater grips Marco taught me over the summer might actually help me get a spot on the team, even though I’m only a second year. I’ve been asking around in my classes to see who’s interested in trying out, and so far I’ve only found about ten people who are thinking of trying out for beater? I’m not saying that I’m obviously going to be better than them, but I really think that I’ve gotten better since the start of the summer. It helps that Marco isn’t too bad himself, given that, you know, he helped Gryffindor win the Cup back when he was in Hogwarts.

I’d be fine with second string, honestly. The most important thing is that _someone_ notices me, so that I can at least be _around_ players who are way better than me and can help me out. I can’t be the youngest player in Hogwarts history, but I sure can be one of the best.

Please don’t tell Marco I said any of that, or else his head is _really_ going to get way too big for his body. But please tell Luis that he really should get a job before Vero and I come back for Christmas break (so that he can get us better presents). I’m joking! Tell him good luck from the both of us. Wish me luck for Quidditch trials!

All the love in the world,

Lance

P.S Turns out Keith’s into Quidditch too, or so Pidge tells me. Pidge doesn’t even like Quidditch!

 

 

October 27, 2011

Dear Mama,

Sorry I haven’t been able to write as much! Quidditch is really taking it out of me; I can barely stay awake after dinner. My days are just eating, sleeping, class and Quidditch. I just want to pass outfor twelve hours, but I’ve still got homework to do and I am _dying_. It doesn’t help that all of my teachers have given us essays due right before the first Quidditch game of the year. I’m not even playing, but there’s no way anyone can focus with all this excitement in the air. Gryffindor won the Cup last year, the way they have for five years straight, and everyone’s itching to pummel them into the ground, me included. Keith made it on the team as their first string Seeker, so I’ve got six months to show Allura that I can handle being a Beater on her team. Then I’ll beat Keith into next year.

Honestly, though, Allura is _amazing_. She’s in seventh year, like Vero, but you couldn’t find two people more different. Her father’s a duke, so she’s practically a princess. I knew she was royalty as soon as she opened her mouth. Here’s the thing, though: I have no idea how to explain Captain Allura. You hear her accent and think, “Oh, she’s posh, she’s soft,” but next thing you know you’re out on the pitch, the winds beating your face red and making your eyes water, and she’s right there with you. Okay, maybe not right there with you, because she’s the Keeper, but it’s not a stretch to say she’s the lighthouse of the team — always steady, leading the way for the rest of us.

I’ve also never met anyone more terrifying in my life (besides you). The upperclassmen warned us about slacking off in practice; apparently she’d always been strict about everyone playing their best, even before she was captain. It’s impossible to not admire her when she’s that dedicated. That’s why it feels so important when she compliments me. Not only am I doing something right, I’m doing right by her. It makes me feel like I just drank a vat of hot chocolate, sugar rush and everything.

….She’s also pretty, but I’m only saying this now because I’ve said every other good thing about her, and Vero would beat me up if I ever called a girl pretty before everything else. But she is. Just putting that out there.

I also tried using one of the pickup lines Veronica taught me, but Allura just smiled at me like I was a lost puppy. Apparently, they “didn’t work in fifth year, so they definitely won’t work now.” She is also very much in love with her girlfriend Romelle, who’s apparently head of the Gobstones club. Well. I’m glad I could make her laugh anyways.

Besides Quidditch, my classes are alright — Professor Waite is still my favourite and DADA’s going great, but for some reason Potions has gotten trickier this year. It might be because there’s a jump between first year and second year, but I don’t have a problem with my other classes. Hunk says he’s doing fine in potions, so…maybe it’s just me.

Sorry this letter’s so short. I’m _this close_ to just sleeping on my desk, but I’d probably end up drooling and smearing all the ink on my face. Or stabbing myself in the eye with my quill. I’ll make it up to you!

XOXO,

Lance

 

 

November 14, 2011

Dear Mama,

Do you remember when I was five and you took us to see the Bulgaria-Ireland exhibition match, and Viktor Krum made a surprise appearance as Seeker? And how I couldn’t stop talking about him for weeks afterwards because every time he made a play I felt like I couldn’t breathe?

Somehow, it’s happened again, and it wasn’t with anyone as wonderful as Krum. It was _Keith._

I know I said that everyone wants to beat Gryffindor, but that’s not going to happen unless all three houses train until their brooms break. We expected them to be good, but adding Keith to that whole mix made the team lethal. The game was only half an hour long! You’d think that the game would’ve been more tense or drawn out, especially since they were facing Slytherin who came a _very close_ second in the Cup last year, but that wasn’t it at all.

After the captains shook hands and Madam Hooch blew the whistle, Keith shot off faster than all of them — for all I know, he could have altitude sickness by now. But when he was up there…it was like nothing could ever sway him. Like, he’s a Seeker, obviously he was moving around and keeping an eye on things, but I’ve never seen anyone look so sure and steady on their broom.

The rest of the Gryffindor team was killing it, too. The Chasers barely held onto the Quaffle before they passed it on to someone else, and they rarely dropped it. The Beaters were something else entirely — I finally understand what Marco means when he says you don’t have to hit hard, you just have to hit smart. The Slytherins could barely make it out of their end of the pitch before the Beaters either forced them back or scared them into letting go of the Quaffle. I wouldn’t normally say that they were “scared”, but Ma, if you saw the way those Bludgers were flying you’d be flinching too. I made sure to pay attention to them, to compare them to what Marco had taught me and to see if there was anything I could steal to run by Allura. The Gryffindor Beaters made…interesting choices.

So while Gryffindor was demolishing Slytherin, Keith kept circling around the pitch. I’d seen the Snitch flash by enough by the time Gryffindor got to about a hundred points that I knew Keith was waiting for something. I had a feeling that he was letting the Snitch get away from him, which pissed me off at first. Like, was Keith letting his opponent have a chance to win because he’s just that good? Does he think of himself as a prodigy? But then I thought about it, and then I realized: duh, the winner of the Quidditch Cup is the one with the most points. Gryffindor’s not going to bank on getting the Snitch ASAP and cutting the game short. What if a game gets dragged out later on in the season, and another House gets more points than they do? So, they do the alternative: win as many points as possible while totally preventing the other team from doing the same.

I figured that 150 points would be a good enough buffer before Keith would need to get the Snitch. Apparently, when I get all tense and anticipate-y, I start leaning forward. Pidge and Hunk had to pull me back into my seat or else I’d have fallen off my bench just waiting for Keith to make a move. Because yeah, at that point, Keith was the one to watch. Slytherin was trying to make a comeback, and they were doing okay, but Shay was a _wall_. The other Gryffindors weren’t letting up either — by then, the whole crowd knew that Gryffindor was going to win, it was just a matter of _when_.

And then. Keith moved.

You know, now that I think about it, I might’ve been breathless because Keith stole all the air when he flew right in front of me. That’s a thing, right? Something moving fast creates a vacuum around it, sucks all the air way? We’re half-bloods, we should know this. (Please double-check this for me, I’ll look it up in the library but their science books are either obscure or old which don’t help at _all_.)

Keith, though. He really is something else. I swear his robes sliced my face when he blew past us in the stands, even though I turned out to be okay. He just dove — I thought he was going to crash into the ground and make us scrape him off the pitch. You could barely see him, you just had to follow the blur streaking down, down, down, until it stopped, and you realized that inside Keith’s clenched hand is the Golden Snitch.

I thought, after pulling that stunt, that he’d look like Judd Nelson at the end of Breakfast Club: the triumphant boy on a sports field raising his fist to “Don’t You Forget About Me”. It plays exactly into the song — how could we ever forget this second year with a mullet, who’d just sprinted over a hundred kilometres an hour to catch the Snitch?

It wasn’t even close. Judd Nelson’s John Bender was cocky, strutting on the field. Keith, on the other hand, looked like he was fated to hold the Snitch. He raised his fist just to show that the game was over, and not even in a “look at me, I’m such an awesome Seeker” way. The Earth is round, Hogwarts is magical, and Keith will catch the Snitch.

Honestly, before this, I didn’t even know just how far I had to go to catch up to Keith. He annoyed me and he seemed like he was better than me, so he was my rival. He inspired me to do better so I could beat him, yeah, but nothing like this. Today’s game has made this…thing, between Keith and I, a whole new ball game. The only reason I’m playing Quidditch right now is because Allura decided that it’d be smarter to have a second string, always ready to step up, than to pray that nobody on the Ravenclaw team ever gets injured. There’s no shame in being a substitute, a second choice…but gods, do I want to be first.

Love,

Lance

P.S When I wasn’t looking at Keith, I was having fun watching Professor Waite watch the game a couple sections over. He was completely decked out in green; I didn’t expect him to be that big of a Quidditch fan, for some reason. It was weird; he was obviously cheering for his house, but after Keith grabbed the Snitch he fist-pumped and grabbed the face of the guy next to him. Both of them looked like they’d just won the lottery, which is an interesting way to cope with losing. The other guy was definitely cheering for Gryffindor, so it makes sense that he’d be happy. No clue who he is, though, but there’s now way he could be a student. He was way too jacked — his arms looked like they’d burst through his leather jacket. I would’ve noticed him in the halls _immediately_.

 

 

March 14, 2012

Dear Mama,

I am _so_ glad I took your advice about getting extra help in potions. Everything that I have done and everything that has happened to me has led to this

Just to reassure you, the way I have ever since I told you that I’d been having a tough time: when it comes to potions I’ve “gotten as good as a hippogriff is at yodelling.” Which. Wasn’t exactly what I expected to hear from Professor Coran, but none of my potions have gotten below an Average lately. I’ve even gotten an Outstanding on my Wiggenweld Potion! Hard work really does pay off, even though it shouldn’t be that hard in the first place.

Anyways.

Hunk, Pidge and I were in potions when the back door smashed open — in walked Keith, dragged along by Professor Slav. Slav honestly wouldn’t have as much power if he didn’t make us suffer through impromptu speeches in the Great Hall, where he tells us about other realities where half of us suffer for the greater good or something. He’s a tiny wormy dude that doesn’t even come up to my shoulder — if I’m saying he’s small, then this guy is _seriously_ small. And yet Keith just slunk in behind him and stuck his lower lip out like a five-year-old. Behold! The power of divination and the ability to annoy everyone around you!

Professor Slav came in just as Professor Coran was about to go over Swelling Solutions, and Professor Coran’s moustache immediately lost all its volume. Slav went on about how he’d calculated that in this reality (out of tens of thousands, obviously) Keith would be sneaking out to the Quidditch pitch during lessons, and that he’d prevented him from doing so in order to _reset the balance of the universe_. Filled with a sense of duty to carry out some kind of earth-shaking prediction that he wouldn’t actually tell us about, Slav then _decreed_ that for all our sakes, Keith must stay in this class and make up his missed Potions class…even though Gryffindors have their classes after ours. Professor Coran tried to get a word in about how this clearly didn’t make sense, but Slav had none of it. Finally, he grabbed the nearest open chair and dumped Keith on it, and told everyone he needed to stay put for this reality to stay true to the prediction.

Clearly, Slav’s prophecy calculation thing needed Keith to be right next to me.

This is what I get for only having two other friends. They leave me behind in the one class we have with two-seater desks, and leave me alone to deal with the vampire emo mullet kid that fate drop-kicks next to me.

Turns out Keith’s got pointy canines — he bit his lip and they were all I could see. They make him look like a dog…maybe a black chow chow? Or maybe some kind of eighties vampire prince from one of your old Mills & Boon novels. It’s the mullet, I don’t think he’s cut it since first year. Course, I still paid attention the whole time — what kind of Ravenclaw would I be if I didn’t? Keith didn’t have any of his school supplies with him, which is apparently because Slav took him to his room to drop off his Nimbus but he didn’t let him get any of his class materials? Either way, I had to lend him some parchment and a quill. I guess Professor Slav’s predictions involve making me suffer more than I have to. Or something.

You know Keith and I aren’t exactly friends, but I wasn’t about to do all the work when I had a partner. So I turned to him when Coran finished talking and went, “You got all that?”, only to have him look at me just like he did in DADA all the way back in first year. There was no way I was going to put up with his frowny amnesiac mug again, so I straight up told him that if he didn’t pull his own weight he might as well brew the potion by himself.

It turns out that Potions isn’t Keith’s strong point either. It might be because he mostly functions on gut feeling and instinct — that’s probably why Quidditch and DADA suit him so well. You need patience as a Seeker and a potioneer, but Seeking’s more about being alert than waiting. Potions is a long, calculated Twister game that can blow up in your face if it feels like it, which Keith _definitely_ didn’t like. Throw in the fact that this wasn’t even his class…yeah, probably not the best situation to be in. Surprisingly, though, we made a good team. Keith probably just needed someone to help pace him properly. That was my problem — I always drowned in the details.But yeah, I helped him take it slow, broke the steps down into smaller pieces, and showed him some tricks to help him out along the way. When he’s not being standoffish, he’s actually kind of okay to be around. Surprisingly, he can do more than grunt and forget who I am. By the end of the class we had a decent potion, if I do say so myself.

We handed it to Professor Coran on our way out, who congratulated us for making the best of a weird situation. Keith stopped in the doorway and I nearly bumped into him, only to have him bump into me when he turned around. He looked like he couldn’t believe what he was doing, but he mumbled “Thanks for helping me out,” before he smiled lopsidedly and ran away.

I know that it’s totally cliche to say someone smiled lopsidedly, but Mother, we are possibly dealing with a mulleted vampire animagus prince. It makes perfect sense that he could only smile with one side of his mouth.

Anyway, I’m just _really_ glad for all that tutoring.

Love,

Lance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> at risk of sounding like a jock: quidditch!!!! QUIDDITCHHHHHH
> 
> this is my first multi-chapter fic EVER so you can probably see why i'm a little excited to finally get this up. it's klancemonth week 3 so i should have something up for film week and book week, but technically this still fits the prompt (thank you, franchises). 
> 
> thanks for reading!!

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr, im @kuxokawa!


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